MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEETING

Weald Squash club

01/05/07

MINUTES

 

Present: Paul Millman (PM) (Chair), Simon Tunley (ST) (Secretary), Fiona Western (FW), Mike Tonge (MT), Ian Robinson (IR), Jenny Wagg (JW)

 

 

 

 

Action

1.        Apologies for absence                                         

Justyn Price (JP), Chris Markham (CM), Karl Manning (KM) and John Parr (JP)

 

2.         Minutes of previous meeting/Matters Arising

            The minutes from the 27/02/07 were accepted as an accurate record.  ST to chase up when the junior county closed is and who will be running it. ST has since called Tim Vail and he confirms a date is still to be confirmed in September and Tim will continue to run the event. ST to confirm still with Naomi Duthie what’s happening with the junior girls county squads. ST stated he had been in dialogue with ND for a while on this but as yet no progress has been made. Since meeting ST has spoken to ND who states she is still keen to take on the role, however she has still not confirmed a date for the first squad session. ST has offered the university as a venue and help with the coaching. IR mentioned Hannah Rice-Davies as a potential coach who could also help. Contact details from FW have been forwarded to ND. ND to confirm her plans ASAP.

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3.       Website

 

KM could not attend but sent email stating he had not heard back from Andrew Eade concerning query on the ghosting rule.

 

On the website KM was planning over the summer to: Move system to a more reliable server; improve functionality of ghost player rule; improve functionality of Es grading statistics option and consider having the facility of an integrated ranking list for all players across both Sussex and Hampshire; allowing internal league results to be entered onto system so non league players could have a ranking; simplify the set up needed for new counties wishing to use the system. He hopes that all these tweaks will make the system more attractive to other counties to purchase.

 

KM mentioned he still had concerns on the fixture generation function, which he may need to resolve.

 

Committee thanked KM for his continued work on the system.

 

ST agreed to contact Zena Wooldridge again about linking the ES grading with our system.

 

4.                  Senior/Junior County Closed

 

Since meeting Richard Rogers from Middleton has confirmed they will run the event again in 2007/08, but has suggested moving it to February. ST/PM confirmed this made sense although needed to ensure it did not clash with other England Squash Events. Junior closed see point 2 above.

 

5.           Hon. Treasurer’s report    

                                                                                   

JP sent through up to date balances of the accounts and was keen to get feedback on a replacement for him. The committee still had concerns on finding someone to take on JP’S role in the future. PM mentioned if KM might be able to manage the spreadsheets in the future. In the interim PM asked ST to see if JP can prepare the budget for 07/08 based on last years figures. A budget for junior development was agreed following the meeting to be £2,000 and for the newsletter £500

 

 The committee approved payment of the  £1000 invoice towards the Community Squash Coach. The committee agreed to this on the basis it was imperative to support the development side. ST has confirmed this with JP.

 

 

6.            Senior and Junior League Reports/ Knock Out Cups

 

CM unfortunately could not make the meeting due to illness; however there seemed to be no major issues to report. He had received an email from Phil Ayton, Brighton SC, who made the suggestion that Chichester 1 and 2 and Dunnings 1 should go up to the premier and no team should be relegated fron Div 1. FW stated she was unsure if Dunnings 1 would want to go up and ST stated if this became the norm you would have to question why teams played in the leagues, plus premier was not as strong as it was. FW stated she would speak to Dunnings on going up. Phil also made comment on the number of free points Cooden collated year on year from playing matches on Saturdays at 4pm; this tended to falsify the final positions of teams. Phil stated these were his own personal views and not those of Brighton SC.  CM asked ST to check the cost of entering the leagues for 07/08. The committee confirmed it was again £50.

 

ST suggested a more severe punishment should be given to those teams that do not fulfil their fixtures i.e. minus 20 points and the inability to get promotion. MT stated that other teams do play on Saturdays as well, so it was a difficult one to call, however the distance travelled does play a part!! The committee agreed these issues needed to be finalised at the fixture meeting on the 31st May.

 

FW said she wanted to bring back 3 divisions for the ladies leagues next year due to the widening gap in playing standards. She also confirmed she wanted to go to 4 player teams, to try and ensure fixtures were fulfilled. The down side of the changes would mean less fixtures for some teams especially in div 1, although the committee agreed that the potential 4 clubs could play against each other four times in a season to ensure they got regular matches. FW confirmed she would run the KO cup again but ensure it was started early to get the fixtures played.

 

 

Junior leagues had gone well. JW asked if we could buy winner and runner up plaques for each division/age group. ST agreed to sort out. Discussions were had on the future format of the leagues. JW suggested using the rankings option similar to the senior league format, however the committee felt we should keep to the same format as this season but go to four person teams. JW mentioned the option of running more junior tournaments throughout the season. Discussions were had about having an east and west festival led by John Millard and MT.

 

7.           County Teams/ Organisers

 

England Squash have put forward the suggestion of having a 0’60’s county league as well as a racketball league. The committee felt both were an option for Sussex, if we could get suitable volunteers for the teams. Graham Fisher the 0’55 organiser agreed, via email to ST, to take on the 0’60s if we entered a team. He also stated for racketball there maybe the need to run an event in Sussex to see who the best players were. ST was asked to confirm Sussex’s support for the idea to England Squash.

 

Tim Vail sent an email about his concerns with attendance at junior boys squad training, as some players had never turned up. He suggested that if a player missed more than two squad sessions they would be dropped from playing for the county; he also suggested that players should pay in advance at the start of the season for their training, which would help with attendance. The committee felt TV should speak to the parents first on the issue of dropping players, although they agreed on the paying of fees up front.

 

See point 2 for update on junior girls.

                                                           

 

 

  

8.                  Junior Development

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MT confirmed that John Millard the Community Squash Coach had sent through an email outlining what he had been doing in the last few months. He had held a number of school taster days and festivals link with Bognor, Cooden ,  Bexhill and Weald squash clubs. MT suggested we should continue to support John’s role.

 

MT stated a level 1 coaching course was held at the University of Sussex with around seven candidates, which should help provides coaches for development work in the county.

 

MT mentioned he had discussions with Justyn Price the South East Area Manager about funding. JP had asked MT to do an audit of clubs in Sussex, which MT agreed to complete. MT talked about putting a bid together and IR agreed to support and liaise with JP now he was based at the University of Surrey. ST suggested JP might know how to access funds through the County Sports Partnership.

 

MT confirmed he had made links with Eastbourne and had put JM in touch with a leisure centre, which was keen to develop local interest. MT was planning to reform the junior committee to help re-develop junior squash in the county. He had emailed potential members to try and set up a first meeting.

 

 

9.                  England Squash

 

IR stated there was no real news. PM asked if anyone could attend the AGM in Nottingham.

 

10.             Newsletter

 

FW showed committee first draft of the newsletter. She requested confirmation of the budget and it was agreed that £500 seemed reasonable for two editions of 500 copies. The committee also agreed it did look better in colour. ST agreed to get a price, as would FW based on getting the best deal. Committee agreed that county closed dates needed to be included see points 2 and 4. PM stated that it was important we highlighted the great successes of all the county teams this season.  FW planned to hand out at the fixture meeting on the 31st May.

 

11.      A.O.B

 

Date for next committee meeting the 11th September 2007at the Weald SC.  ST to book.

 

Fixture meeting to be held on the 31st May 2007 at Horsham SC 7.30pm

 

AGM to be held on the 7th July 2007 at Horsham SC at 9.00am.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ST

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ST

 

 

 

 

 

 

ND
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KM

 

 

 

KM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ST

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ST

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ST/JP

 

 

 

 

 

 

ST

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FW

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ST

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

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MT

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

MT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ST/FW

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ST